L.A. BOUNTY (1989) ** ½
Wings Hauser is a drug dealer who spends his days painting nude portraits of hot women in his warehouse hideout. He kidnaps a mayoral candidate in another one of his get-rich-quick schemes. Sybil Danning is an ex-cop-turned-bounty-hunter who is on his trail. Since Wings was the guy who killed her partner, she’s looking for revenge.
If you’re a Wings Hauser fan, you have every right to check out L.A. Bounty. His sleazy performance doesn’t quite reach the insane heights of Vice Squad, but give the guy credit for trying. The scenes of him painting, threatening people on videotape, and doing little monologues for no one in particular are great. He completely steals the show and infuses the film with his own peculiar blend of psycho charisma.
If you’re a Sybil Danning fan, you might be in for a disappointment. She plays a character of few words (according to IMDB, 31) and often remains silent, brooding, and glowering in her scenes. Danning also got a story credit on this, but I think all that amounted to was her saying, “Hey, how about the hero is played by a woman this time instead of a man?” Seriously, Sybil plays the same kind of role Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson would’ve felt at home playing. Does she pull it off? No, not quite, but it’s sort of interesting to watch her try.
A lot of L.A. Bounty is like that. It never quite works, but it’s watchable throughout. Because Sybil’s performance is so low key, she sometimes feels like a non-entity in the film (except for the scene where she blows a guy’s hand off with her trusty shotgun). It’s then up to Wings to carry the movie. He’s up for the challenge, although his final confrontation with Sybil is a letdown.